One Bed Bug, Two Bed Bugs, Three Bed Bugs, Four

How to make lemonade out of a nasty hotel room (Candace)

I may have posted my last entry about my meltdown a bit too early, because the saga has continued, but I share this now only because it has turned out fine and I’m happy as a peach now. And I’ve taken a lesson out of the events of this week. So much of our happiness in life depends upon our perspective, the way we choose to react. And it is important to remind ourselves of this and surround ourselves with others who do the same.

Okay, so here is the story.

That hotel room? The one that my old roommate didn’t like because it smelled bad? The one that I agreed to take after having a meltdown and cursing all over the hotel? Well, it did smell. Like mildew. And moth balls. And the next morning, as we were checking out, we noticed that our mattresses were immediately stripped and flipped up on the walls. And lo and behold, a few hours later, Andrew had appx. 50 red welts all over his shoulders and back, and I had 30.

Bed bugs!

After getting over our initial feeling of total disgust, we just chalked this up to being part of world travel. We are having such a great journey that even the bed bugs want to hitch a ride. Can you blame them?

The next morning, my buddy Brad and I set off to attend a music festival on Gili Trawangan island. But we were both so engrossed with our technology (he was on a work call, I was watching a replay of the presidential debate) that we completely missed our flight – sitting right at the gate! When we finally caught a plane four hours later, we landed to find out that we had flown to the wrong island!

We thought, as we learned that we had to take a two hour cab and 30-minute boat, that we’d just buy beers and party in the back seat…only to learn that we had landed on a dry island. And when we finally arrived at our destination 12 hours after setting off, we found out that our music festival had been cancelled. You know. No big deal. Just $170 per ticket. And with no formal notice.

Now, the Candace of old would have birthed three cows after a day like this. But not the new and improved Candace. No! Brad and I just decided to laugh it off. The universe had another plan for us.

And that two-hour cab ride was breathtaking. We watched the sun set from the island of Praya, had the most amazing speed boat ride through the Gili Islands, and danced late into the night with the sand between our toes, festival or not.

I’m sitting on the beach now, sipping a G&T, watching the crystal blue water and palm-tree dotted mountains of Praya, and I’m thinking, “Thank God for bed bugs. They really do have good taste.”